Island-wide strike: GMOA to decide on Monday

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) will convene a special General Committee meeting on Monday (January 4) to decide on whether to launch an island-wide strike in the first week of January.

Speaking to Nation, GMOA Spokesman Dr. Naveen de Zoysa said representatives of the association held discussions with Ministers Rajitha Senaratne and Malik Samarawickrama on December 29. Issues that were discussed included the government’s budget proposals, the proposed Indo-Lanka trade agreement and the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), he said.

“Though positive, the discussions were still inconclusive and as such, trade union action is not off the table,” Dr. de Zoysa noted.

The GMOA Spokesman said representatives of all 106 branch unions of the GMOA would be present at the meeting.

On December 21, the GMOA gave the government two weeks to respond positively to a list of demands and warned that failure on the part of the government to do so would lead to launching of an island-wide strike in the first week of January. The union further stressed that the island-wide strike would be launched with the support of other trade unions as well.

Hospital services throughout the island were crippled on December 3 when the GMOA launched a token island-wide strike in protest against some of the proposals put forward in the government’s budget.